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Again, we don't have it warm, it's room temperature or lightly chilled. 'warm' is an exaggeration.

If you're drinking most ale, especially on the darker end, that's how it's supposed to be. No accounting for taste of course, but you're not going to taste most of those properly if they are chilled beyond a certain point.

I'm actually really into beer and there's a whole lot of technical reasons for all this that I can explain across the history of brewing, but it's quite dull unless you're into it the way I am.

Just joking around but it does seem to be one of the few US beers I can think of aside from Budweiser and Millers.... They all just taste like lager.

Ales are definitely not meant to be put in the fridge, kind of like red wine.

Budweiser is a lager. Miller is a Pilsner (or so they claim any way). Coors is just bad. These are the main American beers, and for serious beer drinkers, we turn our noses up at them. Thereís soooooo many good small craft beer breweries around the country. And Iíd much rather $10-15 for a six pack of those as opposed to $6 for Bud/Miller/Coors.

Dude... I was in Poland two years ago, and Tyskie was my go to beer while I was there.

The funny thing is... different beers call for different temps to be ďproperlyĒ enjoyed. Granted, none of those temps are room temp, though. And Iím not a big enough beer snob to really care about a few degrees difference like some people are.

Since this has clearly spun off into a new discussion, is it possible to change the title of the thread to ďThe Beer ThreadĒ or something similar?

Not sure if you all have heard of or could get, Victory Golden Monkey ale. It is 9.5% ABV and is tasty to boot. It is expensive as it is potent, so a 6 pack cost as much as a 12, but 1 beer is equal to 2. Good stuff

The funny thing is... different beers call for different temps to be “properly” enjoyed. Granted, none of those temps are room temp, though. And I’m not a big enough beer snob to really care about a few degrees difference like some people are.

Since this has clearly spun off into a new discussion, is it possible to change the title of the thread to “The Beer Thread” or something similar?

Kind of sad if we had a drunk posting thread AND a beer thread... Would make the forum look like a bunch of drunks. Not that I've actually got anything against that lol.

I would quite happily drink Coors if I had to. It's like the US equivalent to Carling though, doesn't taste of much.

EDIT: Just got a bottle of Jack as a late birthday present. Awesome. It's not lager or ale so maybe we should start a whiskey thread lol.

Not sure if you all have heard of or could get, Victory Golden Monkey ale. It is 9.5% ABV and is tasty to boot. It is expensive as it is potent, so a 6 pack cost as much as a 12, but 1 beer is equal to 2. Good stuff

I saw that last night at one of my local stores. Was thinking about getting a pint of it for a hike/camping trip Iím doing later this week, but I passed on it. Saw a different beer thatís 17%, but it was, like, $18 for a pint. Didnít get that one, either.

Iíve moved the relevant posts because if I just retitle it that pizza poll will be there forever.

Originally Posted by Powder

Room temperature is warm.

Youíve clearly never experienced our weather.

Originally Posted by meandi

The funny thing is... different beers call for different temps to be ďproperlyĒ enjoyed. Granted, none of those temps are room temp, though. And Iím not a big enough beer snob to really care about a few degrees difference like some people are.

I mean, if you think about it beer has existed for around 7000 years and has only been refrigerated for around the last 150, so almost all the beer ever produced has been served at room temperature. The cooler strains of beer donít even exist until 3-400 years ago. If there wasnít a version of beer that was good at that temperature it obviously would never have survived to have become the other drink.

But that said, like you I donít go in for all the micro degrees of temperature, and in fact I think they are getting quite silly when you reach that point. I think you can boil it down much more to there being, for all the other categorisations, two types of beer (I get the feeling you already know a lot of this stuff, meandi, but rather than boring other people I'm going to keep it simple). One that needs to be served very cool to be worthwhile and that only really came to prominence with the industrial revolution, and one that is older, has a wider array of flavours and influences, and if you want to taste the full range of flavour should be served a few degrees warmer.

I will say that due to fashionable trends there is a tendency to serve even ale a bit colder than there used to be. Even to the detriment of the beer sometimes. I think it is to do with the dominance lager achieved in our market, and trendy beer companies trying to pull people back across. It's worked to some degree at all, though not everyone is convinced. There was a thing a while ago for something called ĎGuinness Extra Coldí, and I have heard more than a few guys from Leinster cutting twenty-minute promos on that shit. Didnít taste of anything. And even outside of that in what are called the Ďreal aleí pubs, Iíve never had anything served to me in a pub or club that would even be close to Ďwarmí, for the record.

But anyway, to go back, irrespective of whatever individual preference you might have, that was the answer to the initial question. To a real beer aficionado this stuff shouldnít be served at the same temperature as a lager or other bottom-fermented beer, and generally speaking the darker it is, the less it should be chilled. The fact of the matter is that over-chilling these beers has the same effect on the taste as mixing them with lemonade and damages the flavours far more than diluting it with water would.

Now with that said, I donít actually give a fuck how people drink it. I used to be more puritanical about it but Iíve relaxed as I get older. You want to drink them ice cold, thatís fine with me. Who cares if you are Ďrightí? These things are made to be enjoyed; if you want to chill it or mix it with something, go nuts. Itís no skin off my nose, either way.

As for American beer, itís come on a long way since I first started drinking as a teenager. To be honest, though, even the Ďgoodí stuff is fairly middling quality compared to what you can get as standard here. What I will say is that the attitude to making beer over there seems to have changed a lot, so the size of the country and the amount of breweries means that Iíve no doubt itíll continue to get better.

Iíve moved the relevant posts because if I just retitle it that pizza poll will be there forever.

Youíve clearly never experienced our weather.

I mean, if you think about it beer has existed for around 7000 years and has only been refrigerated for around the last 150, so almost all the beer ever produced has been served at room temperature. The cooler strains of beer donít even exist until 3-400 years ago. If there wasnít a version of beer that was good at that temperature it obviously would never have survived to have become the other drink.

As for American beer, itís come on a long way since I first started drinking as a teenager. To be honest, though, even the Ďgoodí stuff is fairly middling quality compared to what you can get as standard here. What I will say is that the attitude to making beer over there seems to have changed a lot, so the size of the country and the amount of breweries means that Iíve no doubt itíll continue to get better.

Good point on the weather, but I doubt you live in an old, cold, damp, and drafty castle. BUT if you do, you are awesome!

But to your point on how old beer is (as a whole), meat was around for thousands of years, prior to finding out that if you cook it, it tastes so much better. Once refrigeration came about, people realized that some things simply taste better cold, including beer. The amount of time people drank warm beer is irrelevant to when refrigeration came about. And I could care less about brewing techniques.

American beer gets such a bad rep because of how bad Budweiser, Coors, and Miller are as a whole. But Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Light are much, much better than the original versions. There are tons of "micro brews" that are amazing, and smaller brands, but still major like Sam Adams, Brooklyn, Blue Point etc that are all really good, but not as known to the world outside of the US.

Two things. I can tell that you can care less about brewing techniques, and that's why you don't really know much about this stuff which is why I answered your question. You're killing half the taste if you overchill it. You think it tastes better that way? Fine. But that's not how it's supposed to be served. That's the fact of the matter, regardless of either of our opinion.

And to the second point, we have all those beers you mention, and they're only middling compared to stuff that you can buy in any pub or taproom here. We've got a massive beer culture here and that involves not just getting the superior lagers from Europe but have access to a wide array of the American craft stuff too.

Room temperature is warm. Beer/Ale/Lager ay etc. needs to be cold. There is a reason we freeze our pint glasses/mugs. Yum.

Freezing a pint glass is just bad procedure. Like Prime Time said... the colder it gets, you start losing flavor. Me personally, I prefer to pull one out of the fridge, pour into a glass straight out of the cabinet and then let it sit for a few minutes... maybe 3-5 or thereabouts.

I was about to say I canít stand stouts or porters, but then I remembered I donít think Iíve actually had any. Reading a description always turns me off. Like, recently... I saw a pint and it was labeled as (something along these lines...) ďa peanut butter coffee breakfast stoutĒ. Yeah... no. Give me a nice IPA or Pilsner, and Iím happy. Or a good pale ale. Or a Belgian blonde.

Slightly off topic, but Jameson (whisky) has a line called Cask Mates. They finish the whisky in craft beer barrels. The initial taste is very much Irish whisky, but then you can taste the beer afterwards. Donít know if Iím a fan or not. Which is sad because Jameson is my second fav Irish whisky, and I love craft beer. Just not together, apparently.

Prime is 100%. Americans dont typically drink beer at or slightly above room temp, but some should be to taste all the notes. Same idea as to how a can or bottle can alter the flavor of the same exact beer. If you love beer, experiment.

America isn't given enough credit in the past 5-10 years, as our beer market has hit a bit of a revolution. Drinking Coors, Bud, Miller, to me, is sacrilege. Especially since there are so many amazing beers being brewed in America atm. I suggest Maine Brewing Company (they make an awesome sour), Shipyard, Yuengling (which is only distributed to a select few states on the east coast, but is awesome. You brits would probably love this one imo if you ever find your way over here), Guinness is loved here (Though it's Dublin native- recommend the new Blonde variant, and the Irish Wheat is fucking wonderful), Harpoon, and Magic Hat. Those are the beers the cool kids drink around here.

Sam Addams is on the outskirts of the upper echelon. Its good but mass producing has dropped the quality a bit. And then there are a bunch of awesome micro breweries. My buddies started a brewery a few years ago now, and we hang out in their tap room every other week and drink their glorious beer (Outlaw Brewing- I'd honestly say they will hit it big within the next couple years, as their beer is blowing up in our neck of the woods these days- they make an awesome Summer Wheat, Coffee IPA, and a pepper beer that is surprisingly fantastic)

I will say there is one growing trend in the beer industry that I despise (IPAs). IPAs are mostly garbage. Most micro breweries make IPAs because you can mask shit/poor/cheap ingredients easily. The average quality of IPAs is disgusting to me personally. I looooove a good Belgian/Witbier, wheat, blonde, or white though.

Slightly off topic, but Jameson (whisky) has a line called Cask Mates. They finish the whisky in craft beer barrels. The initial taste is very much Irish whisky, but then you can taste the beer afterwards. Don’t know if I’m a fan or not. Which is sad because Jameson is my second fav Irish whisky, and I love craft beer. Just not together, apparently.

I am not sure if it is this way or the other way around. I know that they finish the beer in whisky barrels too.

I've had some good ones but generally speaking they aren't my favourites either. Might make me a traditionalist but generally I prefer to have my beer made from Barley.

I've noticed there is a real difference between IPA's here that are made by the traditional brewing companies and those made in the craft style and in microbreweries. The former are generally pretty good, but the latter are often, as Kleck says, garbage. I've noticed that although craft got really popular a few years ago there is a real pushback from the real ale crowd in the last few years: craft may be 'trendy' and have an image advantage but there's a real sense that often the product just isn't as balanced or - to put it bluntly - as high quality as the more traditional real ale producers.

As for Iced beer, I used to drink Labbatts Ice when I was a teenager. Used to be on offer a lot, and when you're young affordability counts for a lot.

I will say there is one growing trend in the beer industry that I despise (IPAs). IPAs are mostly garbage. Most micro breweries make IPAs because you can mask shit/poor/cheap ingredients easily. The average quality of IPAs is disgusting to me personally. I looooove a good Belgian/Witbier, wheat, blonde, or white though.

This is just silly. Like with anything in life, thereís good and bad versions of things. To say IPAs are mostly garbage is perhaps the least popular opinion right now. Yes, there are bad ones that are absolutely horrible, but there are also great ones that are like nothing else. Thereís a reason youíll find IPAs at a much higher ratio compared to other styles, and itís because the general consensus right now is that IPAs are amazing. With that said, Iíd much rather a nice Pilsner or blonde straight from the tap when Iím at a bar.

I was about to say I can’t stand stouts or porters, but then I remembered I don’t think I’ve actually had any. Reading a description always turns me off. Like, recently... I saw a pint and it was labeled as (something along these lines...) “a peanut butter coffee breakfast stout”. Yeah... no. Give me a nice IPA or Pilsner, and I’m happy. Or a good pale ale. Or a Belgian blonde.

Forgot to touch on this the first time around. The thing about the darker beers is that they are more of an acquired taste. They've got a reputation for being more bitter than the light beers, but this is actually only a first impression, really. When you start digging into it, they're actually sweeter, believe it or not, than most lighter beers.

Obviously even if you can taste through that initial hit, sweet beer isn't necessarily for everyone. And they're often a lot heavier, more full-bodied. But it's interesting that they have that reputation when the ingredients - chocolate, fruits, caramels - do lead you in another direction.

I've had some great beers in that line in my time. I'd say that because it's an acquired taste and because of the heavy nature it can be more easy to get something you won't like, but then it occurs to me that plenty of lighter beers that don't have a good hop balance can be quite unpleasant, so it's actually much the same as anything else.

I'd much rather be drinking something like Hobgoblin, Bishops Finger, Bombardier etc but just can't afford it if I actually want to feel the effects.

I'm not a massive fan of Stout either, for the same reason I'm buying cheap. After 1 single Stout you feel like you can't drink anymore because it's so filling. If I was just doing it for the taste, then maybe, but I generally find they're not even that great tasting.... Each to their own.

Where do you all come down on Sours? I have found as I get older and have essentially stopped drinking beer (had a real love for IPAs at one point, but have had to put them aside due to ungodly headaches I get when I drink them) and moved to whiskey primarily, that every now and then, when I am in the mood for beer that I really enjoy a good Sour.